Shifting Mining Trends Aid in Growth and New Developments for Immersive Technologies

25 August 2014

While lower commodity demand and prices have impacted most aspects of mining related businesses, some mining technology and services companies are using the challenging market to better align their offering and tailor new solutions to support current and future industry needs. Immersive Technologies, the global leader in simulation based training for mining, has seen a year of growth in its customer base, product and service offering, and most importantly in the results their customers are achieving.

Immersive has continued to invest heavily over the last two years in order to grow their extensive simulated machine range, recently adding graders, surface drills, road headers, shuttle cars and continuous miners. Their IM360 simulator launched in March is able to simulate both underground and surface machines in high definition and features world first RealMove™ technology which allows for complete spatial interaction where trainees can freely walk around the entire worksite and practice for emergency events like mine evacuations, safety incidents and natural disasters. Attendees of Electra Mining in Johannesburg will be able to see their continuous miner, underground and surface trucks.

In addition to the expanded product range Immersive Technologies has also supported the uptake of autonomous mining with the development of a
training center for autonomous haulage at Codelco’s Gabriela Mistral “Gaby” copper mine in Chile. The adoption of autonomous mining by major miners creates a need to train personnel to think and work differently while interacting with the new systems. With 20 years of successful innovation in
mining, Immersive Technologies was well positioned to develop a solution for autonomous training operations.

Immersive Technologies’ global simulation training footprint has now reached 37 countries and the company renewed exclusive agreements with Caterpillar Global Mining and Liebherr this year which ensure the highest fidelity products and formal endorsement by the OEMs.

“Our long term strategy of delivering real results for our customers, together with our exclusive OEM endorsements and extensive customer support network, clearly demonstrate that we develiver the best solutions for our customers. This helps maintain our position as the recognized leader in mining training solutions. New trends and challenges further position Immersive Technologies to deliver lasting value to the mining industry and play an important role as workforce development challenges continue to evolve,” says Peter Salfinger, Immersive Technologies CEO.

Immersive Technologies has continued to invest heavily in research and development over the past two years including releasing simulators for graders, surface drills, road headers, shuttle cars and continuous miners. They will be showing their new continuous miner simulator at Electra Mining in Johannesburg in September.

About Immersive Technologies

Immersive Technologies is the world’s largest, proven and tested supplier of surface and underground Advanced Equipment Simulators to the global mining industry. The company has achieved this unique position by focusing on its mission to increase Customer profitability by optimizing the safety and productivity of their operators. Immersive Technologies’ Advanced Equipment Simulators are helping hundreds of mining companies around the world to increase their equipment operators’ safety and site profitability through effective simulation training.

Immersive Technologies provides its customers with the most effective Advanced Equipment Simulators available. This is made possible through the formal licensing and technical information alliances Immersive has established with the leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), including: Caterpillar Global Mining, Hitachi, Komatsu and Liebherr. These unique alliances provide Immersive Technologies with access to the OEM’s proprietary and confidential machine technical information that is required to correctly simulate the OEM’s machines and is not available through other public or dealer channels.

With advanced simulator modules deployed in 44 countries, Immersive Technologies is dedicated to provide outstanding service. To deliver on this commitment the company has customer sales and support offices located close to its customers in Perth and Brisbane Australia, Salt Lake City USA, Fort McMurray, Ottawa & Vancouver Canada, Monterrey Mexico, Lima Peru, Santiago Chile, Belo Horizonte Brazil, Bochum Germany, Johannesburg South Africa, Jakarta Indonesia, Kolkata India and Moscow Russia.